Valentines For The First Grade Class

The Bug has never been a girl who loves dolls. She has always been crazy about wild animals and dinosaurs. So I was so grateful to remember these awesome Wild Animal Valentines created by Design Mom Gabrielle Blair which she posted on her blog two years ago. She even followed up her original post with a .pdf file of the cards.

Gabrielle's tutorial will give you all the critical info, but I thought I would share some info on our process. This morning I'll give you all my sourcing info and later today I'll post on how to simplify crafting projects like this for kids. UPDATE: Here's the link to keeping it simple post.

Sourcing

Cards: Download the .pdf right here at Gabby's blog DesignMom. I didn't have any gloss cover paper at home, so I took the file to Staples and had them copy it for me onto gloss cover paper. Quick & easy. I think these were about $1 per sheet, $7 total.

Animals: Party City has a bin where you can pick and choose the animals you will need and pay for them individually rather than buying a pack of miscellaneous wild animals at most stores and having to pick out the ones you need. Each animal cost 35 cents.

Bags: These are the candy bags you can get in the cake decorating aisle. There are 50 to a pack and they only cost a couple of dollars.

If you're still looking for a fun school Valentine's Day card this is a good one. It is a good last minute project because nothing you need is so Valentine-y that it will already be sold out or in short supply. If you try these, I'd love to know and see how they turn out.

Today I am visiting a favorite catering company hidden away away in a commercial back alley near my house. They actually have a nice little cafe there and bakery. I am going to skip making Valentine's cookies this year and just go buy a few from the bakery there.

It's not Valentine's Day without a good sugar cookie in my book. I also have a little bag of chocolates a lovely neighbor gave me that I am saving for the day. We are glad to know that both our boxes with Valentine's gifts have reached The Man. He will have some fun things to snack on and enjoy. We sent him a giant Reese's Peanut Butter Cup heart along with lots of other treats, little cards, a heart garland and some of his favorite chips.

What are your favorite Valentine's Day treats? Are you into jewelry, flowers, chocolates, singing telegrams or proposals on billboards?